The BBC's Dragons' Den is back for another series, but I'm not sure the formula is being adhered to. The five multi-millionaire "dragons" appear to have been de-clawed through too much self-publicity (especially those documentaries that peeked into each businessman's private lives), so they're no longer the fearsome beasts the title would have us believe...Remember previous years, when entrepreneurs would regularly stumble over their words and sweat buckets under the frozen stares of these inscrutable investors? These days everyone's more at ease because the dragons have been exposed as personable, nay likeable people. Consequently, a lot of fun for the viewer has vanished in seeing entrepreneurs squirm or dry-up under the spotlight. You're only really in trouble if you corner yourself into the embarrassment of not being able to recall your own financial statistics.
Take last night's episode, where the once-scary dragons eagerly participated in various demonstrations (drumming, playing poker) and even performed a "magic trick" with a revolving bathroom unit. All with the enthusiasm of grinning schoolboys. Where once there was only one "nice dragon" (traditionally perched on the far left), they're all fairly pleasant now. Even Duncan Bannatyne's attempts to be a bad boy last night (turning down an offer to participate with a drumming troupe, before labeling their team-working idea "horrendous") was played for sardonic humour.
Maybe we're seeing an intentional tweak to the formula because of the financial climate? Are the BBC cautious about broadcasting a TV show where dragons (essentially one-man "banks") try to unnerve the decent, common man who are essentially just after a "loan"?
Interestingly, there are signs the credit crunch has affected the program itself; the dragons rarely invest in something without partnering another dragon to share the financial risk, and the opening credits no longer show the millionaires getting out of personal jets, driving flash cars, or relaxing aboard luxury yachts. No, no. Now they just stand in silence in font of a dilapidated warehouse smothered in CGI heat-haze.
Of course, while Dragons' Den is noticeable duller when it comes to the dragon/entrepreneur face-offs, it's still entertaining because the mix of business ideas and inventions are reliably bizarre (make-up for ethnic skin tones), untenable (disposable plates made from palm tree leaves) or genius (a magnetic way to quickly thread cable through walls.) But I can't help thinking it's about time the dragons stopped being so cuddly and started breathing fire again, or were else replaced by millionaires the public don't have a firm handle on. Bring back the uncertainty and fear, basically.
22 July 2009
BBC1, 9pm
